The Flatland Valley, in the middle of the day.
Out in the open, a pile of bloody guts lay on the ground. High in the air, three vulture-like beasts hovered above it in circles, clearly attracted by the corpse.
The three carrion birds hovered above it for a while, making sure that there no predators were around. Seeing no signs of anyone else, the three vultures finally came down to claim their prize. One after another, the large birds touched down, landing near the corpse.
Looking at the vultures up close, they had razor-sharp talons and curved beaks. Their feathers were white as bones, covering their entire bodies except their necks and heads. Their wingspan reached four meters each, making the birds look massive when fully unfolding their wings.
More interestingly, these birds had an extra pair of wings growing on the ankles of their claws, like that of Hermes's sandals. The extra wings were much smaller in size and also sharp and short-looking, unlike the broad and wide main wings. Analyzing those extra wings, it was clear they weren't there to assist in flight but to serve some other purpose.
Finally, looking at the vultures as a whole, they could only be identified as a Cyclone Reaper Vultures—a Level 1 wind-type beast.
The vultures squawked as they approached the pile of guts. Just as one of them was about to take the first bite, the pile of guts shifted as if alive. Then, out of nowhere, a stream of black liquid shot out of it, smearing the face of the vulture trying to bite it.
The vulture recoiled back in shock, its whole face now painted black. The liquid covered its eyes, blinding it. It kept shaking its head, trying to shake off the substance to recover its vision but to no avail .
At the same time, the other two vultures were also startled. Their once-thought easy meal turned out to be an ambush.
The pile of guts continued shifting, revealing itself to be Octo—Wally's totem beast. It was using its shape-shifting abilities to mimic a pile of guts. This was an ambush planned by Courage: Octo would disguise itself to attract scavengers, then once they were close, it would try to blind them with its ink. That was its part in this ambush.
As for the other part of this plan
Kabuto burst out from the ground nearby, then immediately rushed at the enemies. It had buried itself previously so it wouldn't be detected until the prey got close enough.
Using [Burst Charge], Kabuto was seconds away from ramming the vultures. But they were faster. Summoning a gale of wind, the two unblinded vultures ascended quickly. The other one, still blinded, couldn't recognize the danger quickly enough to react in time. Before it could fly away, it was struck to the ground by Kabuto.
Hiding in a bush some distance away were Wally and Courage.
"Wally, my beast will take care of the two airborne vultures. You take care of the downed one—don't let it escape the ground," Courage said.
"Got it. I'll do my best," Wally responded.
Immediately, the two began transmitting orders to their beasts. Octo lunged at the fallen vulture, wrapping its tentacles around its wings. Using [Polymorph], it turned its body metallic.
The vulture tried to struggle free, but it was no use. Octo's tentacles were now like iron binds, and its now-metallic body weighed down on the beast, making its escape impossible.
With the first vulture locked in place, Kabuto could divert its full focus to the other two.
The hovering beasts, angered by the ambush, were now determined to fight. If they couldn't get a corpse to eat, they would make one instead.
The two vultures flapped their wings, generating another gale of wind. Then, riding these winds, they began revolving around each other in the air. Combining their power, they created a wind tornado strong enough to pull dust and small rocks into it—though the tornado's pull didn't seem strong enough to pull Kabuto.
But that didn't matter to the vultures, because their real attack began now. Flapping the secondary set of wings at their ankles, sharp sounds began to emit—like the swish of blades. With each flap, a wind blade would be created, but instead of shooting forward, they began flying within the tornado.
After a few moments, the tornado was filled with these wind blades. As small pebbles were sucked into it, they were sliced to dust. The tornado was now like a giant shredder.
"What do you know—these beasts can perform a special move," Courage remarked as he observed.
Originally, special moves weren't something created by humans instead they were created by beasts.
When the early beast catalysers were still studying beasts, they noticed that some could use a combination of their abilities to bring out greater power or to produce special effects. Pulling inspiration from this, humanity established the idea of special moves and expanded on it.
Even though it was beasts that did it first, humanity was the one who truly ran with the concept. With their higher intelligence and great imagination, humans were capable of producing sets and combinations of abilities better than beasts that relied solely on instinct to use their abilities . Thus, over the years, humanity created many special moves for their beasts with varied effects and even higher complexity.
So in short, it's not really a surprise to find some wild beasts capable of performing a special move. Heck, looking at how these two vultures were combining their power together, you can tell that they were not only performing a special move but a combination special move—showing that wild beasts were even capable of something like that too.
The shredding tornado soon began moving and barreling toward Kabuto, shredding everything in its way like a storm of death. Yet Kabuto stood his ground, undeterred.
The tornado was just about to engulf his body when Kabuto activated [All Out] and [Flux], boosting its defense. The shredding winds surrounded Kabuto, bringing down a hail of blades upon its body. Yet despite that, Kabuto remained unharmed. [Jade Bone] granted its body a naturally stalwart defense and even a level of elemental resistance. Add to that Kabuto actively increasing its defense even higher with its abilities, and its body was now nothing short of indestructible—the gale of blades only inflicting scratches at best.
Still, even if Kabuto could resist the attack, just standing there and tanking it wasn't really accomplishing much either. But not to worry—Kabuto's intention in doing that was to waste the vultures' power and get them tired.
Eventually, the two vultures realized the futility of their attack. Now starting to get fatigued, they stopped their special move and returned to hovering above Kabuto.
What now? They couldn't hurt Kabuto, but the earth-bound beetle couldn't harm them either. Even though Kabuto was capable of flight, that had never been one of its strongest aspects. Beetles were known for not being the best flyers, and against a bird—be it in speed or maneuverability—they are helplessly outmatched.
So it was hopeless for Kabuto to win in an aerial battle if he tried to take to the sky. But luckily, he didn't need to.
Kabuto took a steady stance, fixing its legs to the ground. Then he aimed his horn at one of the vultures.
The vulture was still hovering in the air when suddenly, a powerful force slammed into it like an invisible wall. The impact struck it down hard, knocking it from the sky.
[Burst Shell]!
Now it was Kabuto's turn to use its special move. The struck vulture plummeted to the ground, possibly knocked out by the power of [Burst Shell]. A cloud of dust exploded as it hit the earth, then it lay there motionless. If the shot hadn't done it in, then the fall certainly did.
The other vulture was shocked by what just happened, flapping its wings frantically and squaking loudly. Yet instead of running away, it still tried to retaliate. Opening, then slamming all of its wings together simultaneously, it shot out a large wind blade toward Kabuto.
Kabuto once again didn't try to avoid the attack, meeting it head-on instead. Aiming his horn at the incoming projectile, he used [Burst Shell] again, shooting out a compressed shockwave and recoiling back like a firing tank.
The Burst Shell met the wind blade head-on, and soon it was clear which of the two attacks was the strongest. The Burst Shell shot through the wind blade, dissipating it, then continued shooting forward, finally landing on the vulture. Even though the Burst Shell lost some of its power thanks to its clash with the previous attack, it still packed enough of a punch to also knock that vulture from the air into the ground. Even if the fall didn't finish it, Kabuto was there to fix that. Soon, that poor beast was done for
"Only one left," Courage muttered, diverting his attention to the last remaining vulture still wrestling with Octo. He was about to order Kabuto to go and assist it, but then he stopped. Watching Wally do his best to guide his beast to victory, Courage decided to let him handle this one on his own. This was a good opportunity for him to grow.
Under Wally's command, Octo kept shifting around the vulture, turning several of its tentacles into weapons to attack it whilst also keeping its wings bound by the remaining ones.
The two beasts kept wrestling with each other. The vulture pecked and clawed at Octo whenever it could, inflicting injuries on its body. Yet the octopus refused to relent, striking back just as fiercely and returning wounds to the vulture. But in one moment in the fight, the vulture found an opportunity to shoot a wind blade at octo.
"Shit!" Courage cursed. If Octo got hit with such an attack point blank, it would definitely get heavily injured or worst .
He was about to spring into action when suddenly, right at the critical moment, Octo changed its body, growing stone plates all over it and even growing a stone-like fin that ran across its head.
"The Stone Fin Saber Jaguar armor!" Courage was surprised.
The wind blade landed squarely on Octo, but thanks to the stone armor it deployed at the right moment, it was able to survive the attack—even though it sustained a deep wound on its body.
Octo, wounded but undefeated, wrapped several of its tentacles together, shifting them into the form of an armored stone claw. Then, swinging that claw with everything it had, it slashed the neck of the vulture open, finally finishing the beast
The vulture heaved its final breaths, then silence. The grueling battle was over.
"I... I did it," Wally muttered. "I beat a beast on my own."
"Hell yeah you did!" Courage roared, wrapping his arm around Wally's neck in celebration. Wally started to laugh, still not believing he had done it, but soon he acknowledged his achievement and began celebrating too. "I DID IT!" he shouted, throwing his arms high in triumph.
Beating a single beast on his own might not seem like something worth this level of celebration for others, but for Wally, this was a monumental achievement and proof that he was no longer the helpless guy he once was. He was finally starting to grow into a man who could hold his own—and for Wally, that deserved a celebration.
The two savored this victory a bit longer before they finally got back to earth. Wally immediately started tending to his beast, giving it several vitality-drop berries to mend its wounds, while Courage scoured their surroundings and collected their spoils.
Once Octo regained its strength, the two went on to continue hunting for the rest of the day. They encountered and hunted several beasts of different types. Against some, they managed to achieve a clean victory; against others, they had a couple of close calls—yet they managed.
With each victory, the two became better as a team. And after every fight, before collecting the spoils, Courage would let Octo inspect the carcasses of the beasts to add more aspects to its arsenal.
That move Octo performed earlier—where it copied the characteristics of the Stone Fin Saber Jaguar to gain an advantage against the Cyclone Reaper Vulture—really impressed Courage. He believed if that technique was developed properly, it could possibly become a special move, so he encouraged Wally to keep working on it.
By the end of their hunt, Octo had accumulated several potentially useful aspects to mimic. Still, it would need training to learn to make the most of them.
Other than the beasts they'd hunted, the two were lucky enough to find some materials that could be considered catalysts. Even if they weren't of use to either of them, catalysts could still be sold for a decent sum, so it wasn't a loss.
As the sky began to darken, that's when the two decided to call it a day. They began making their way back same way they came from.
The two marched together, their spirits high from their bountiful hunt. However, as they were making their way back, the sound of a loud roar coming from a not so far distance away starteld them and got their attention. Wally immediately wanted to avoid whatever that was and quickly leave. Yet Courage's curiosity got the better of him, so he convinced his companion to go investigate, promising Wally they would leave at the first sign of danger. Wally begrudgingly agreed and followed closely behind Courage.
After walking for a bit, the two and their beasts found themselves at the top of a large, cliff-like hill. On the ground below was the source of the noise.
At the ground beneath the hill, two sides fought. One was a massive scorpion beast with razor-sharp pincers and a needle-like stinger. Its body was black and golden-colored and it had several purple eyes that leaked murderous intent , lastly judging by it's aura one could tell it's a level 3 beast.
The other side facing it was actually a party of beast catalysers. There were several of them all giving of the aura of level 2 , each stood by their beasts, facing down the scorpion. Looking at this party of people, you would notice their matching outfits and armor with robes of black and white, with a crest of a rising sun embroidered into them.
Courage realized that these people belonged to the Band of Dawn. But observing further, he noticed something even more astonishing. In the rear of the party, a young woman stood grasping a golden reaper in her hand. This young woman had short silver-blonde hair that reached to her neck, flawless alabaster skin, and fiery amber eyes. This was none other than Sarah Morningstar—the founder and leader of the Band of Dawn.
Courage clicked his tongue. after planning this entire hunt for them to avoid the Black Hyde Gang and the Band of Dawn, they had not only ended up running into one of them anyway but had also stumbled upon their very leader, no less. How ironic he thought
Courage and Wally ducked to the ground to avoid being seen. Peeping from the top of the hill, they continued watching from afar.
"Should we really keep watching? We could get in trouble if we get caught," Wally asked, his tone worried.
"True," Courage answered. "But this... this is a rare opportunity. It's not every day you get to see a member of a great clan in action. So let's just observe for a bit. I'm sure they won't be able to see us from here. Besides, I'm also certain they'll be preoccupied with what's in front of them to spot us anyway."
Back to the battle below. Different kinds of attacks flashed and shot forward from the beasts of the Band towards the scorpion, causing the large beast to retaliate with several attacks of its own. It stung with its stinger rapidly and cleaved with its pincers, trying to kill the humans and their beasts.
But the party displayed incredible battle prowess. From dodging and defending to counter-attacking, this party performed all of it skillfully and with great coordination. It was clear that they were an elite squad, especially seeing that they were actively going against a monster of a higher level than them and holding their own.
Still, even though they were holding their own, the large scorpion beast wasn't being damaged at a fast enough rate. If this kept up, the party members would be exhausted before the scorpion was, and if that happened, they could fall into a dangerous predicament, Courage concluded.
How were they going to handle this? Courage wondered as he continued observing the fight with anticipation.
The fight continued with the party still fighting spectacularly. However, strangely enough, Sarah Morningstar, their leader, hadn't actually done anything from the beginning of the fight. She was standing there with her golden reaper in her hand, just watching the battle go on. In a manner, she didn't even seem to summon any beast of her own yet.
After an hour of fighting, the party began to show signs of slowing down as fatigue began to set in. It was this moment that Sarah Morningstar finally made her move.
She only took one step forward before a brilliant light began to emanate from her.
"This... this aura... she's actually a Level 3 catalyser already?" Courage gasped in shock.
It was a known fact that people who awaken are usually of the same generation for every awakening ceremony, so it was safe to say that Sarah Morningstar couldn't be that much older than Courage. Yet despite being of a similar age range and probably awakening around the same time , Sarah had actually far surpassed not only Courage but most of the world. It took several years to reach Level 3; even Courage's father, who too was a Level 3 catalyser, took no less than ten years to reach that level.
But there she was . Not a bit more than a year had actually passed since the Awakening Ceremony for their generation, and she had already reached that level. Most new catalysers from her generation were still making their way through Level 1, and only the best, the richest, and the luckiest of them were even close to Level 2.
"And I thought my development speed was worth bragging about, heh... I stand corrected," Courage whispered to himself as he struggled to keep watching. Being a Level 1, the aura of a Level 3 placed actual pressure on him.
The light bursting from Sarah finally dimmed down, condensing into the form of her totem beast.
Her totem beast was a surprisingly small owl. The owl had bright red feathers covering most of its body and electric cyan-colored feathers for its underbelly and golden yellow on the tips of its wings and tail. The owl also had a crown-like golden crest at the top of its round head, adding to its regal appearance. Finally, the owl's eyes shone with a fiery glow, as if sunlight was actually shining from them, and a membrane of light constantly enveloped the owl, giving it the feeling of a divine being.
The small owl sat upon its master's shoulder. Its stature, though small, held a presence on the battlefield that was undeniably heavy. Even the scorpion halted its attacks the moment the owl appeared .
"What a powerful totem... its mere presence is making the scorpion hesitate to attack," Wally remarked, he too pressured by the owl's strong aura.
Courage watched intently, eyes fixed on the owl. Sarah whispered a command to her beast, and in an instant, the small owl still perched on her shoulder began to shine with light once more. The light was coming from its crown-like crest, and unlike the light from before, this one had a strange warmth and brilliance. Even from the distance they were hiding, Courage could feel the warmth of that light.
"What is this?" Courage wondered. This light not only felt warm but also felt subtly empowering in some way.
Sarah shone her light on her companions, and then an amazing change began to occur. The aura of her companions' beasts began to gradually grow stronger until they began to emit auras comparable to Level 3 beasts themselves.
"Impossible! Did she make those beasts break through to the next level?" Wally exclaimed in shock.
Courage was also stunned, but he just as quickly retorted, "No, that can't be what happened. This... this has to be something else."
Courage understood that beasts breaking through to the next level just like that was impossible. He had studied the theory of beasts' development extensively from his father's notebooks and had even done his own research, so he knew for a fact that beasts can't grow in level this casually. This led to the only logical explanation being is that Sarah's totem must have used some kind of enhancement ability to strengthen the other beasts to a level comparable to Level 3 themselves.
This would explain the change in their aura, as the aura exuded by a beast is solely governed by its strength. So even if a beast wasn't actually Level 3, if they somehow managed to strengthen themselves enough to match the strength of that level, their aura would change as well, making it seem as if they were. Meaning, right now, those beasts might not be true Level 3 beasts, but their strength is now comparable.
But even with that explanation, Courage was still shocked by what he was seeing. Enhancement abilities weren't anything new in the world of beast catalysers; there were thousands of beasts with all kinds of enhancement abilities that can grant buffs with various effects, usable on oneself or others. Even Kabuto's core ability, [All Out], was technically an enhancement ability. So enhancement abilities themselves weren't anything revolutionary—Courage knew that.
But never had he ever heard of an enhancement ability that could straight-up "level up" a beast in terms of overall strength. This was something completely unheard of. And not only that—for the ability to be able to affect multiple beasts, it must be an extremely powerful one.
"Just how powerful is that owl to have an ability like this?" Courage muttered. He wasn't even talking about the owl's level, but the strength of the creature itself.
See, not all beasts are made equal. Some beasts are considered stronger than others even if they're the same level—that is why beast have grades. The beast grading system, though rough, is still the clearest indication of who is strongest within the same level (excluding growth level) , with higher-ranked creatures obviously being stronger than lower ones.
That is also why the higher the beast grade, the more valuable it is. Higher-grade beasts are rarer than lower ones, and not only that—high-grade beasts have bigger potential for growth , meaning they are more likely to be able to grow in level and also have bigger prospects. Finally, high-grade beasts are more likely to have more unique characteristics, like rare traits or abilities.
Low, mid, and high—that was the three grades a beast could be, as known by everyone in the world.
Courage's totem was a high-grade one, thus it was presumably one of the best there is. Yet when Courage placed his beast next to Sarah's, they couldn't be compared. Her beast showed clear superiority when comparing the potency of its abilities to Kabuto's. [All Out] was a potent ability—don't get it wrong—but even it can't compare to the power Sarah's owl displayed. The difference was too big.
"Could it be a peak-grade beast?" Courage exclaimed.
There were only three grades a beast could be—that's what everyone knew and believed. However, some theorized the existence of a fourth grade above them all: Peak Grade!
However, the world only acknowledged the existence of three grades and not four because peak-grade beasts have always been nothing but rumours and urban legends. With no definitive evidence ever presented to confirm their existence, so it was impossible to prove or deny their existence.
However, if we take the legends as true, then we would learn that being a peak-grade beast meant standing at the pinnacle of the world. A peak-grade beast is the best a beast could possibly be—meaning incomparable strength to any other. A peak-grade beast is automatically the absolute ruler for its level, and thanks to their boundless potential, they are guaranteed to keep rising in level as long get everything they need.
However awakening a peak-grade totem beast is no simple feat. According to the legends, in order to awaken a peak-grade totem, one must not only possess the highest aptitude humanly possible but also achieve the highest result possible in their awakening . These two conditions together make this feat nothing if not impossible.
People born with a high-grade aptitude were already a minority in the world, and since you not only need the best of the best from them but also for them to achieve the highest awakening result possible, all these factors together would make the odds of awakening a peak-grade totem beast no more than one in ten million. As most people in the world don't even qualify, and even the ones that do are not guaranteed to achieve the necessary result.
"No wonder no one's ever heard of or seen a peak-grade beast. It seems that only people in the world qualified to acquire such a thing are the members of the great clans," Courage concluded.
The great clans—those families with ancient history and great prestige—it is no surprise that those with the blood of the great clans in them are bound to have the highest aptitudes in the world. And not only that—the great clans naturally raise all their youths to become powerful beast catalysers. All of their sons and daughters are prepared for their awakening the moment they're able to walk. So it's was easy to conclude that the great clans are the only ones that can foster individuals gifted enough and skilled enough to fulfil all of these conditions.
So who knows? Maybe peak grades do exist, and some people did awaken or tame some of them before. But since it's only people comparable to the great clans who are capable of that, then it's possible the information was hidden by the elites.
Courage shivered, realizing that he might have just learned something he shouldn't have.
The scorpion was once at an advantage. Even though it was facing more opponents, its higher level more than made up for that—it was hard for lower-leveled beasts to defeat higher-level ones, after all. But now that all of its opponents were of a comparable level of strength to it, and with their superior numbers and excellent battle prowess, the scorpion was now the one at a disadvantage.
The large scorpion fought fiercely to save itself, but the odds were now stacked heavily against it. So in the end, the large beast was defeated. But it seemed heaven still had some mercy for that poor scorpion, as Sarah didn't order its death—instead subjecting it, making the scorpion lose its freedom but keep its life. Once Sarah finished taming it, she called off the power of her beast, returning the beasts of her party members to their original state.
"See? It was an enhancement ability after all," Courage whispered to Wally, that scene confirming his hypothesis. "Anyway, time to leave... we might have seen too much," he whispered, his tone holding a sense of urgency.
Just as Courage and Wally were about to sneak away, Sarah—who was surrounded by her party members congratulating her on her new acquisition and discussing their previous battle—said all of a sudden in an audible tone:
"Leaving so soon, you two? You've been watching us for a while, and now you're leaving just like that? Why don't you stick around a bit longer for a little chat"
The party members: ????
Courage and Wally: !!!!!!!!
Courage felt his whole body run cold when he heard these words. Turning his head in disbelief, he saw it—Sarah Morningstar staring directly at them with her fiery amber eyes.
"Shit!" Courage cursed. He didn't know how, but she had somehow found them. And not only that, but judging from her tone, it seemed she knew they were there right from the beginning.
Courage didn't think anymore. He only grabbed Wally and was about to order Kabuto to get them away from here. He knew they were damned if they get caught.
But before he could even hop on his beast, Sarah swung that golden reaper of hers, and a sword light flashed by in an instant—faster than the eye could see.
Courage: "Heh?" He didn't know what happened, but suddenly he was feeling weightless and his vision was descending. He was... falling! Sarah had sliced the edge of the hill where Courage was standing, and now that hillside was falling down—with Courage, Kabuto, Wally, and Octo coming down with it.
It all happened in an instant. Courage didn't even get to finish cursing when they were already halfway to hitting the ground.
A heavy crash and a large cloud of dust later, Courage and his companions were now at the bottom of the hill— burried under a layer of dirt and debris, but luckily unharmed.
Courage was disoriented from the fall, but the moment he lifted his head while still sprawled on the ground, he was met with the figures of Sarah Morningstar and several other people looking down on him, their gazes unfriendly.
"Ehhh .... Hehe," Courage could only laugh sheepishly